US Assails Syrian Support For Terror

June 21, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

With Syria's foreign minister presiding over the U.N. Security Council, the United States strongly attacked Syria's support for terrorist groups and demanded it condemn Palestinian suicide bombings, diplomats said.

The Syrian minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, denied Thursday that Syria supported terrorists, saying his country didn't have the means, financial or otherwise, to arm or give resources to terrorist groups, council diplomats said.

Syria holds the council's rotating presidency for June, and al-Sharaa followed a council tradition of foreign ministers coming to New York to preside.

Thursday's closed meeting turned out to be anything but quiet after U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte attacked Syria for supporting terrorist groups.

Colombia's U.N. Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso said Negroponte's speech was tough. Al-Sharaa responded by denying any terrorist connections, Valdivieso said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who also addressed the council meeting, said the Syrian minister "did indicate that, obviously, he is against the killing of innocent civilians, but raised the question of the helplessness of the Palestinians, and indicated that they are not the only ones guilty of harming civilians."

Syria is on the U.S. list of countries sponsoring terrorism, and the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush says it engages in both active and passive support for terrorist groups.

Negroponte told al-Sharaa that Syria should be more active in condemning recent suicide attacks on Israeli civilians, council diplomats said. He also said Syria should call for the infrastructure that supports terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad to be dismantled, the diplomats said.

In his speech to the council, Annan called for three key issues to be tackled urgently: Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory; the absence of security for Israel and continuing terrorist attacks; and the dire humanitarian and economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"We need clear and achievable time frames" to arrive at a permanent settlement, Annan said.

Annan said the sooner an international conference on theMideast can be put together "the better."

"I hope the conference will be about substance, not about process, and that we can yield genuine results, with timelines, to give a real message to those concerned that the international community is determined to work with them to resolve the problem," he told reporters afterward.

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